He hadn't escaped.
There had been no breaking of chains, no shattering of stones, no splitting of the clouds to reveal some heavenly light. He wasn't a free-wheeling bird in the sky; no. He was still here.
The walls of the compound stretched around him, unfeeling and untouched. The wooden doors were shut and quiet, but he could still feel the eyes that watched from behind corners, through walls and rooms and into secret places.
He pivoted gracefully on his foot, spun into a lightning strike. His hair whirled viciously before him, momentarily blinding. Heavy air met his palm. He clenched his jaw and shut his eyes, letting his hands go limp and shifting slowly to a standing position. His eyes opened slowly, wreathed with veins. The walls stared blankly back; the eyes behind the walls turned away and resumed their business. Only the quickly settling dust seemed to be affected by his existence. In a moment, the dust, too, had stilled.
The quiet scraping of a door announced his uncle's presence. He turned to greet the stern but weary-eyed man, bowing briefly in acknowledgement.
"Neji-kun." The older man slowly lowered himself into a sitting position on the wooden floor. He gestured for Neji to continue. "I didn't mean to interrupt your training. Please, continue."
Neji's desire to train fled, but he resumed the initial stance of his kata anyways. Even after all these years, he still felt constricted with the piercing white eyes scrutinizing his movements. But he had long since forced himself to ignore the discomfort and to concentrate instead on channeling his energy into fluidity and perfection.
His body followed through the steps flawlessly (agonizingly). He was grateful that his uncle's Byakugen could not see the sweat that had collected in the crevices of his hand, because that would be humiliating and unforgivable.
He let out a breath when he had finished the kata, once again returning to a standing position. His uncle smiled.
"Excellent as ever, Neji-kun." The words of praise rattled Neji, but he concealed the flitting emotion with another bow, tight-lipped.
The fight had been over two weeks ago, but he dreamt of it every night. Replayed each move in his head in excruciating detail, combing through the scenes to find his mistake. Where had he gone wrong? How had he miscalculated?
It was inconceivable. The loud-mouthed blonde had won.
But he hadn't been wrong. Naruto was still wrong about Fate, even if he had won the match. Fate was still there, inviolable. He had merely misunderstood what his own Fate was. He hadn't been freed from the chains of destiny, and he was still struggling with the bonds of bitterness and hatred. Even the subsequent confession of his uncle after the fight had not quite released Neji in the way he had hoped it would.
His uncle's smile had dimmed, like his eyes.
And he was still here.
Huh, that turned out unexpectedly gloomy. Haha. I really wasn't intending for it to end so...fatalistically. I guess Neji's character got the better of me. And man, I haven't written about the Hyuugas in a while...in fact, I haven't written at all in some time. It felt kind of nice.